Caller authentication system

ABSTRACT

A disclosed method of authenticating a telephone caller includes receiving an authentication request for the telephone caller that includes a voice recording of the caller and household information indicative of a household, creating a first voice pattern based on the voice recording of the caller, retrieving a second voice pattern using at least some of the household information, comparing the two voice patterns, and transmitting information indicative of the results of the comparison. The transmitted information may include information that the telephone caller is authenticated, is not authenticated, or that the comparison results were inconclusive. The method may include monitoring telephone calls with the household, and if it is determined that a voice on at least some of the telephone calls is associated with the household, creating the second voice pattern based on the voice, and associating the second voice pattern to the household. The method may further include disassociating the second voice pattern from the household if it is determined that a change of household has occurred.

The present patent application is a continuation of a previously filedpatent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/022,855, filedJan. 30, 2008, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated byreference. Pursuant to 37 CFR §1.78(a)(3), an application data sheetcontaining a reference to the previously filed application, unlesssubmitted previously, is submitted contemporaneously herewith.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to confirming the identity of telephonecallers.

2. Description of the Related Art

Individuals often use a telephone to access personal or restrictedinformation that is maintained by third parties such as financialinstitutions, stock brokers, credit card issuers, department stores,service providers, and the like. Before being permitted to access suchinformation, such individuals are typically required to confirm theiridentity using a password, personal identification number, orcombination of the two.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of selected elements of a telephone callerauthentication system;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of selected elements of a callerauthentication resource suitable for use in the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of selected elements of a caller verificationrequestor resource suitable for use in the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of selected software modules employed in oneembodiment of the caller authentication resource of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of selected software modules employed in oneembodiment of the caller verification requestor resource of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of selected elements of an embodiment of atelephone caller authentication method performed by the callerauthentication resource of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7A is a flow diagram of selected elements of an embodiment of atelephone caller association method performed by the callerauthentication resource of FIG. 2;

FIG. 7B is a flow diagram of selected elements of an embodiment of atelephone caller disassociation method performed by the callerauthentication resource of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of selected elements of an embodiment of amethod performed by the caller verification requestor resource of FIG.3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT(S)

In one aspect, a disclosed method of authenticating a telephone callerincludes receiving an authentication request for the telephone callerthat includes a voice recording of the caller and household informationindicative of a household, creating a first voice pattern based on thevoice recording of the caller, retrieving a second voice pattern usingat least some of the household information, comparing the two voicepatterns, and transmitting information indicative of the results of thecomparison. The method may further include monitoring telephone callswith the household, if it is determined that a voice on at least some ofthe telephone calls is associated with the household, creating thesecond voice pattern based on the voice, and associating the secondvoice pattern to the household. In another embodiment, the methodincludes disassociating the second voice pattern from the household if ahousehold change has occurred for the household.

In another aspect, a caller authentication device suitable forauthenticating telephone callers is disclosed. The device includesstorage, a processor operable to access the storage, a callerauthentication request interface for receiving an authentication requestfor a caller wherein an authentication request includes a voicerecording of the caller and further includes household informationindicative of a household, a telephone call monitoring interface formonitoring calls with the household, and one or more applicationsmodules, at least partially stored in the storage, includinginstructions executable by the processor. The one or more applicationmodules include instructions to: create a first voice pattern based onthe voice recording of the caller; retrieve a second voice pattern usingat least some of the household information; compare the first voicepattern to the second voice pattern; and transmit information indicativeof a result of the comparison. The one or more application modules mayfurther include instructions to: monitor a plurality of telephone callswith the household; create the second voice pattern based on a voicewhen the voice is determined to be associated with the household; andassign the second voice pattern to at least one of a physical addressfor the household and a telephone number for the household.

In a further aspect, a computer program stored on a tangible computerreadable medium is disclosed. The computer program has instructionsoperable for authenticating a telephone caller alleging to be associatedwith a household. The computer program further has instructions formonitoring a plurality of telephone calls with the household andinstructions for creating a first voice pattern in response todetermining that a voice on at least some of the plurality of telephonecalls is associated with the household. Further instructions areoperable for associating the first voice pattern with the household,creating a second voice pattern based on the voice recording of thetelephone caller, retrieving the first voice pattern using informationindicative of the household, and comparing the first voice pattern tothe second voice pattern. Instructions are further included fordelivering the results of the comparison and for disassociating and/orde-assigning the first voice pattern from the household upon determiningthat a household change has occurred for the household.

In the following description, details are set forth by way of example tofacilitate discussion of the disclosed subject matter. It should beapparent to a person of ordinary skill in the field, however, that thedisclosed embodiments are exemplary and not exhaustive of all possibleembodiments. Throughout this disclosure, a hyphenated form of areference numeral refers to a specific instance of an element and theun-hyphenated form of the reference numeral refers to the elementgenerically or collectively. Thus, for example, widget 102-1 refers toan instance of a widget class, which may be referred to collectively aswidgets 102 and any one of which may be referred to generically as awidget 102.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 depicts selected elements of anembodiment of a telephone caller authentication (TCA) system 100. In thedepicted embodiment, TCA system 100 includes customer premises equipment(CPE) 110, a caller authenticator resource (CAR) 125, and a provider 140all connected via a network 115. In the depicted embodiment, provider140 is communicatively coupled to a caller verification requestorresource (CVRR) 120. CAR 125 as shown in FIG. 1 has access to a voicepattern database 150. Voice pattern database 150 may contain one or morevoice patterns wherein at least one of the voice patterns is associatedwith household information indicative of a particular household (such asthe physical address of the household or a telephone number associatedwith the household). In this way, voice pattern database 150 may, ifqueried for voice patterns associated with particular householdinformation, return at least one voice pattern associated with theparticular household information. In some embodiments, network 115 mayinclude elements of a public network such as the public telephone switchnetwork or the Internet, a private network including Internet Protocolbased private networks, or both. CPE 110 may be located in a household130 (as depicted by CPE 110-1) and, as depicted in FIG. 1, CPE 110 maybe a telephone. Also as depicted, CPE 110 may not be located inhousehold 130 (as depicted by CPE 110-2). Household 130 includes atelephone caller 105-1 who may reside in household 130 and who may useCPE 110-1 to place telephone calls from household 130 or to receivetelephone calls made to household 130.

In some embodiments, TCA system 100 facilitates the ability of provider140 to authenticate the identity of telephone callers 105 who callprovider 140 to access information that may be personal or restricted.Such authentication may be performed in the depicted embodiment of TCAsystem 100 without the need for telephone callers 105 to provide apassword, personal identification number, or some combination of thetwo. Provider 140 may be any person or entity that maintains informationsuch as account or personal information for which access should berestricted to authorized individuals. Examples of provider 140 includefinancial institutions, stock brokers, credit card issuers, departmentstores, service providers, and the like. Before permitting telephonecallers 105 to access such personal or restricted information, provider140 may invoke CVRR 120 of TCA system 100 in an effort to determine iftelephone caller 105 is authorized to access the requested information.

In some embodiments, CVRR 120 obtains a recording of telephone caller's105 voice and account information associated with the restrictedinformation telephone caller 105 desires to access. CVRR 120, as shownin FIG. 1, has access to an account information database 160. Accountinformation database 160 may contain one or more account numbers whereinat least one of the account numbers is associated with a particularhousehold by way of household information indicative of the household(such as the physical address of the household, a telephone numberassociated with the household, or other information indicative of thehousehold). In this way, using account information submitted bytelephone callers 105 (such as an account number associated with theinformation), CVRR 120 may query account information database 160 toobtain a physical address, a telephone number, or other informationindicative of a household associated with the account number. Inalternative embodiments, provider 140 may provide CVRR 120 with arecording of telephone caller's 105 voice and may further provide CVRR120 with information indicative of a household associated withinformation which telephone caller 105 is attempting to access. In otherembodiments, provider 140 may provide CAR 125 with a recording oftelephone caller's 105 voice and may further provide CAR 125 withinformation indicative of a household associated with information whichtelephone caller 105 is attempting to access. Provider 140, CVRR 120,and CAR 125 may use interactive voice response technology to provide orobtain any or all of the voice recording of telephone callers 105, theaccount number for the information telephone callers 105 desire toaccess, or the household information indicative of a householdassociated with the information telephone callers 105 desire to access.

CVRR 120 may, through network 115, communicate an authentication inquiryto CAR 125. In alternative embodiments, provider 140 may communicate anauthentication inquiry to CAR 125. The authentication inquiry mayinclude a recording of telephone caller's 105 voice together withinformation indicative of a household associated with the informationwhich telephone caller 105 desires to access. In other embodiments, avoice pattern is created by CVRR 120 or provider 140 based on therecording of telephone caller's 105 voice and such voice pattern inincluded within the authentication inquiry. Such household informationmay include an address or telephone number for the household or anyother information indicative of the particular household such as a platnumber, property identification number, legal property description, orthe like. Upon receipt of an authentication inquiry, CAR 125 as shown inFIG. 1 accesses voice pattern database 150 or may access another storageresource available to CAR 125 (not depicted) to determine if telephonecaller 105 is authenticated to access the desired information. In oneembodiment, CAR 125, after receiving the voice recording and thehousehold information, creates a first voice pattern based on the voicerecording and accesses voice pattern database 150 to obtain a secondvoice pattern associated with the household information. CAR 125 thencompares the first voice pattern to the second voice pattern todetermine if the voice patterns match. In alternative embodiments, thefirst voice pattern based on the voice recording of telephone caller 105may be provided to CAR 125. Creation (if applicable) and comparison ofthe voice patterns may be performed by CAR 125 using commerciallyavailable voice authentication systems. One example of such a system isNuance Verifier 3.5, the trademarked voice authentication software ofNuance Communications, Inc. with offices located in Burlington, Mass.

Based on the comparison result, CAR 125 communicates the results of thecomparison to CVRR 120. In other embodiments, CAR 125 may communicatethe results of the comparison directly to provider 140 or to telephonecaller 105 or to such other party or device (or combination of theforegoing) as CAR 125 may be directed to do. Based on the results of thecomparison, provider 140 may then elect to permit telephone caller 105to access the desired information, may then prevent telephone caller 105from accessing the desired information, or may then perform furtherauthentication of telephone caller 105 such as requesting additionalinformation from telephone caller 105 (such as a password, personalidentification number, account history, etc.) that is unique to theaccount associated with the information telephone caller 105 desires toaccess. In further embodiments, CAR 125 may be communicatively coupledto provider 140 and/or CVRR 120 and (as applicable) account informationdatabase 160 so as to permit CAR 125 to receive, process, and respond toan authentication request in real time (i.e., such that provider 140and/or telephone caller 105 experience no or minimal delay in receivingthe results of the comparison).

Thus, the described TCA system 100 is operable to authenticate atelephone caller as residing within a household associated withrestricted information that the telephone caller desires to access. TCAsystem 100 is operable to perform the authentication processautomatically and without the requirement for the telephone caller toprovide a password, personal identification number, or some combinationof the two. Although TCA system 100 is described herein with respect totelephone calls with consumer oriented service providers, one skilled inthe field will recognize the applicability of the described system foruse in non-consumer applications and environments. As an example, TCAsystem 100 may be employed in industrial, business to business,governmental, educational, and other environments to authenticate theidentity of callers desiring to access information maintained byentities or persons operating in such environments.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a simplified block diagram illustrates selectedelements of an embodiment of CAR 125. In some embodiments, CAR 125represents, or resides on, a server that is accessible to CVRR 120and/or provider 140. In the illustrated embodiment, CAR 125 includes aprocessor 205 having access to a storage resource 210. Processor 205 maybe implemented with a general purpose microprocessor such as in adesktop or notebook personal computer, an embedded processor such as ina network aware device, or another suitable processor device such as aserver class microprocessor device such as a Xeon® processor from Intelor an Opteron® processor from Advanced Micro Devices. A network adapteror interface 215 is operable to connect CAR 125 to an external networkincluding the network 115 depicted in FIG. 1.

The storage resource 210 of CAR 125 may include volatile storageincluding, as examples, dynamic random access memory and static dynamicrandom access memory, as well as non-volatile storage including, asexamples, magnetic disks, optical disks, floppy disks, magnetic tapes,Read Only Memory devices, flash memory devices, and the like. In someembodiments, portions or features of CAR 125 may be implemented ascomputer software modules that include a set or sequence of computerexecutable instructions stored on storage resource 210 or anothersuitable storage device accessible to processor 205.

Referring to FIG. 4, for example, a block diagram of selected softwaremodules embedded or otherwise stored in storage resource 210 of oneembodiment of CAR 125 is presented. In the depicted embodiment, anoperating system 402 supports a verification module 410 and anassociation module 420. Operating system 402 may include elements ofcommercially distributed operating systems including a Windows® familyoperating system from Microsoft, a Linux® family operating system, aUnix family operating system, and or the like. Verification module 410and association module 420 operate, as described in greater detail belowwith respect to the operations depicted in FIG. 6, FIG. 7A, and FIG. 7Bto verify whether a submitted voice recording or voice pattern matches avoice pattern associated with a specified household.

Referring to FIG. 3, selected elements of one embodiment of CVRR 120 areillustrated. In some embodiments, CVRR 120 represents, or resides on, aserver that is accessible to provider 140 and/or CAR 125. As depicted inFIG. 3, a storage resource 310, a network adapter 315, and a voicerecorder 320 are accessible to a processor 305. Like processor 205,processor 305 may be implemented with a general purpose microprocessorsuch as in a desktop or notebook personal computer, an embeddedprocessor such as in a network aware device, or another suitableprocessor device such as a server class microprocessor device such as aXeon® processor from Intel or an Opteron® processor from Advanced MicroDevices. Storage resource 310 of CVRR 120 may (like the storage resource210 of CAR 125) include volatile storage including, as examples, dynamicrandom access memory and static dynamic random access memory, as well asnon-volatile storage including, as examples, magnetic disks, opticaldisks, floppy disks, magnetic tapes, Read Only Memory devices, flashmemory devices, and the like. Network adapter or interface 315 providesan interface that enables communication between processor 305 andnetwork 115. In some embodiments, portions or features of CVRR 120 maybe implemented as computer software modules that include a set orsequence of computer executable instructions stored on storage resource310 or another suitable storage device accessible to processor 305.

Referring to FIG. 5, the depicted embodiment of storage resource 310 isshown as including an operating system 502 and a requestor module 510.Operating system 502 may include elements of commercially distributedoperating systems including a Windows® family operating system fromMicrosoft, a Linux® family operating system, a Unix family operatingsystem, and or the like. Requestor module 510, as described in greaterdetail below with respect to the operations depicted in FIG. 8,initiates verification requests by identifying a telephone call fromtelephone caller 105, obtaining a voice recording of telephone caller105, obtaining applicable household information from account informationdatabase 160, and transmitting the obtained voice recording of telephonecaller 105 and the applicable household information from accountinformation database 160 to CAR 125. In alternative embodiments,provider 140 may obtain a voice recording of telephone caller 105, mayobtain applicable household information associated with the informationwhich telephone caller desires to access, and may transmit the obtainedvoice recording and household information to CAR 125 or to CVRR 120. Insome embodiments, provider 140 and/or CVRR 120 may create a first voicepattern based on the voice recording and transmit the first voicepattern alone to CAR 125.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a flow diagram illustrates selected elements ofone embodiment of a method 600 of authenticating a telephone caller.Verification module 410 of CAR 125 of TCA system 100 may be used toperform methodology 600. Further, methodology 600 may be performed by acomputer program stored on computer readable medium with instructionsoperable to cause one or more data processing systems to carry out theoperations shown in methodology 600. As used herein, the term computerreadable medium should be taken to include a single medium or multiplemedia (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associatedcaches and servers) that store the one or more instructions. As shown,operation 610 relates to receiving an authentication request. In someembodiments, the authentication request may be generated by CVRR 120 ofTCA system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1. In other embodiments, theauthentication request may be generated by provider 140. Theauthentication request may include a voice recording of the telephonecaller and household information indicative of a household associatedwith information which the telephone caller desires to access. In otherembodiments, the authentication request may also include a first voicepattern based on the voice recording. In further embodiments, a firstvoice pattern based on the voice recording may be provided in lieu ofthe voice recording. As shown, a first voice pattern or print based onthe provided voice recording is created (operation 620). In embodimentswhere a first voice pattern is provided to CAR 125, method 600 may omitoperation 620 and proceed directly to operation 630. Operation 630relates to retrieving a second voice pattern or print utilizing theprovided household information. The first voice pattern is then comparedto the second voice pattern in operation 640 and the results of thecomparison are transmitted (operation 650). In some embodiments, theresults of the comparison are transmitted to CVRR 120. In otherembodiments, the results of the comparison are transmitted to provider140 or to telephone caller 105 or to such other party or device (orcombination of the foregoing) as CAR 125 may be directed to do.

In one embodiment, method 600 of FIG. 6 is described in more detail withrespect to TCA system 100 depicted in FIG. 1. In this embodiment,telephone caller 105-1 may place a telephone call to provider 140. Thetelephone call may be placed using CPE 110-1 or may be placed usingsomething other than CPE 110-1 such as CPE 110-2 (which as depicted is atelephone not located within household 130). Upon receiving thetelephone call from telephone caller 105-1, provider 140 obtainsinformation indicative of an account associated with information whichtelephone caller 105-1 desires to access. As noted above, suchinformation may be obtained by way of interactive voice responsetechnology. Provider 140 then initiates CVRR 120. In some embodiments,initiation of CVRR 120 may be automatically implemented upon receipt ofthe telephone call by provider 140 or may be selectively implementedafter receipt of the telephone call using interactive voice responsetechnology or other suitable means such as initiation by an individualor operator who has received the telephone call. Using the accountinformation, CVRR 120 accesses account information database 160 andobtains household information indicative of the account for whichtelephone caller 105-1 desires to access information. In operation 610,CAR 125 receives an authentication request from CVRR 120 to authenticatetelephone caller 105-1. In other embodiments, the authentication requestmay be received from provider 140. The authentication request includes avoice recording of telephone caller 105-1 and household informationwhich is indicative of a particular household (in this instancehousehold 130) associated with the information which telephone caller105-1 desires to access. The voice recording may be created by CVRR 120and the household information may be retrieved by CVRR 120 from accountinformation database 160. In operation 620, CAR 125 creates a firstvoice pattern based on the transmitted voice recording of telephonecaller 105-1. In operation 630, CAR 125 retrieves at least one secondvoice pattern from voice pattern database 150 using the householdinformation. CAR 125 then compares the first voice pattern to the atleast one second voice pattern to determine if telephone caller 105-1 isassociated with household 130. If more than one second voice pattern isassociated with household 130 in voice pattern database 150, CAR 125 maycompare the first voice pattern to the associated second voice patternsuntil either a match is found or until all or substantially all of theassociated second voice patterns have been compared. If the first voicepattern matches a retrieved second voice pattern, CAR 125 transmitsinformation that telephone caller 105-1 is authenticated. In an instancewhere telephone caller 105-2, who is not associated with household 130,places a telephone call using CPE 110-2 or other CPE (not depicted) toprovider 140 and desires to obtain access to information associated withhousehold 130, the first voice pattern created by CAR 125 of telephonecaller 105-2 would not match (operation 640) any of the associatedsecond voice prints retrieved in operation 630, and CAR 125 wouldtransmit (operation 650) information that telephone caller 105-2 is notauthenticated. In instances where the results of the comparison of thefirst voice pattern to a second voice pattern are not conclusive, CAR125 transmits information that the comparison was inconclusive.Operations 620 and 640 may be performed by CAR 125 using commerciallyavailable voice authentication systems. One example of such a system isNuance Verifier 3.5, the trademarked voice authentication software ofNuance Communications, Inc. with offices located in Burlington, Mass.

Referring now to FIG. 7A, a flow diagram illustrates selected elementsof one embodiment of a method 700 of associating telephone callers witha particular household. Association module 420 of CAR 125 of TCA system100 may be used to perform methodology 700. Further, methodology 700 maybe performed by a computer program stored on computer readable mediumwith instructions operable to cause one or more data processing systemsto carry out the operations shown in methodology 700. As shown,operation 700 relates to monitoring CPE associated with a household andassociating telephone callers utilizing the monitored CPE with thehousehold. As shown, operation 710 relates to monitoring CPE of aparticular household. Such monitoring may include making voice patternsof telephone callers on telephone calls placed from or to the monitoredCPE over a selected period of time. The voice patterns may beperiodically reviewed and compared to determine in operation 720 if asufficient number of voice patterns exists for a telephone caller sothat such a telephone caller may in operation 730 be associated with(i.e., determined to be residing in) the particular household. Theperiodic review may be conducted over a period of days (fifteen or morefor example) to avoid associating an individual who may be visiting theparticular household. If a determination is made in operation 720 that asufficient number of voice patterns exists for a telephone caller sothat such a telephone caller may be associated with the particularhousehold, then in operation 730 the voice pattern is associated withthe household. In one embodiment, operation 730 involves updating voicepattern database 150 to include the association or assignment of theparticular voice pattern to the particular household using applicablehousehold information. In this way, more than one voice pattern may, inoperation 730, be associated with or assigned to a particular household.

Referring now to FIG. 7B, a flow diagram illustrates selected elementsof one embodiment of a method 750 of disassociating telephone callerswith a particular household. Association module 420 of CAR 125 of TCAsystem 100 may be used to perform methodology 750. Further, methodology750 may be performed by a computer program stored on computer readablemedium with instructions operable to cause one or more data processingsystems to carry out the operations shown in methodology 750. As shown,operation 750 relates to disassociating or de-assigning voice patternsthat are associated with or assigned to a particular household upon theoccurrence of a change of household (i.e., the applicable home is sold,a new telephone number is acquired for the household, the existingtelephone number or telephone account for the household is cancelled).Information on whether a change of household has occurred may beobtained from telephone company installation and de-installation recordsas well as real estate sales records. As shown, when a change ofhousehold is determined to occur (operation 760), voice patternspreviously associated with, or assigned to, the applicable household aredisassociated or de-assigned from the applicable household (operation770). In this way, voice patterns previously associated with, orassigned to, a particular household may, in operation 770, bedisassociated with or de-assigned from a particular household such thatan individual previously associated with a particular household would nolonger be authenticated following an authentication request when suchindividual is calling provider 140 to access information associated withthe particular household (i.e., CAR 125 would transmit (operation 650)information that such individual is not authenticated).

Referring now to FIG. 8, a flow diagram illustrates selected elements ofone embodiment of a method 800 of transmitting a telephone callerverification request. Requestor module 510 of CVRR 120 of TCA system 100may be used to perform methodology 800. Further, methodology 800 may beperformed by a computer program stored on computer readable medium withinstructions operable to cause one or more data processing systems tocarry out the operations shown in methodology 800. As shown, operation800 relates to creating a voice recording of a telephone caller,retrieving household information associated with information thetelephone caller desires to access, and transmitting an authenticationrequest. As shown, operation 810 relates to the creation of a voicerecording for the telephone caller. Using account information associatedwith the account for which the telephone caller desires to accessinformation, operation 820 relates to retrieving household informationassociated with the account. In one embodiment, operation 820 may beconducted by requestor module 510 by querying account informationdatabase 160. The voice recording of the telephone caller and theretrieved household information are then transmitted as anauthentication request to CAR 125 (operation 830). In other embodiments,provider 140 may perform the operations of method 800.

The applicable household information contained in account informationdatabase 160 may be obtained by provider's 140 interaction with itscustomers. Provider 140 may desire to obtain additional householdinformation beyond what may be available or readily obtained by way ofprovider's 140 interaction with its customers and to do so in a mannerwhich does not require such additional household information to beobtained directly from the applicable customer. In one embodiment, CAR125 may have access to additional household information obtaineddirectly from households (as well as from third parties) such as ages ofpersons residing within the applicable household, employmentinformation, income information, service preferences, gender, race, andthe like. Such additional household information may be stored in voicepattern database 150 (or another database or storage device notdepicted) and associated with the particular household. In suchembodiment, CAR 125 may make available to provider 140 some or all ofsuch additional household information data when CAR 125 transmitsinformation that a telephone caller 105-1 for the applicable householdis authenticated. In this way, provider 140 may obtain as part of thedisclosed method of authenticating a telephone caller, additionalhousehold information regarding the household for which the telephonecaller has been authenticated.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments which fall within thetrue spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, to the maximumextent allowed by law, the scope of the present disclosure is to bedetermined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the followingclaims and their equivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited bythe foregoing detailed description.

What is claimed is:
 1. An authentication method, comprising: monitoringa plurality of telephone calls associated with customer premisesequipment of a household for a predetermined duration; for each of theplurality of telephone calls: responsive to determining that a voicepattern of a call participant matches a previously recorded pattern,determining whether a number of occurrences of the previously recordedpattern exceeds a sufficiency threshold; and responsive to determiningthe number of occurrences exceeds the sufficiency threshold, associatingthe voice pattern with the household; receiving, from an authenticationrequestor, a request to authenticate a telephone caller, the requestincluding: a first voice pattern of the telephone caller; and householdinformation indicative of the household; retrieving, based on at leastsome of the household information, a second voice pattern associatedwith a household member; comparing the first voice pattern to the secondvoice pattern; transmitting information indicative of a result of thecomparing; and disassociating voice patterns associated with thehousehold upon the occurrence of a change of household.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the household information includes a street address ofthe household.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the householdinformation includes a telephone number associated with the household.4. The method of claim 1, wherein the information indicative of a resultof the comparison indicates that the particular telephone caller isauthenticated.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the informationindicative of the result of the comparison includes additional householdinformation.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the additional householdinformation includes household demographic information.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the information indicative of a result of thecomparison includes information that the comparison was inconclusive. 8.A caller authentication device, comprising: a processor; a networkadaptor; and storage, including processor executable instructions that,when executed by the processor, cause the processor to performoperations comprising: monitoring a plurality of telephone callsassociated with customer premises equipment of a household for apredetermined duration; for each of the plurality of telephone calls:responsive to determining that a voice pattern of a call participantmatches a previously recorded pattern, determining whether a number ofoccurrences of the previously recorded pattern exceeds a sufficiencythreshold; and responsive to determining the number of occurrencesexceeds the sufficiency threshold, associating the voice pattern withthe household; receiving, from an authentication requestor, a request toauthenticate a telephone caller, the request including: a first voicepattern of the telephone caller; and household information indicative ofthe household; retrieving, based on at least some of the householdinformation, a second voice pattern associated with a household member;comparing the first voice pattern to the second voice pattern;transmitting information indicative of a result of the comparing; anddisassociating voice patterns associated with the household upon theoccurrence of a change of household.
 9. The device of claim 8, whereinthe operations include: assigning the first voice pattern to at leastone of a physical address for the household and a telephone number forthe household.
 10. The device of claim 8, wherein the householdinformation includes at least one of a physical address for thehousehold and a telephone number for the household.
 11. The device ofclaim 8, wherein the information indicative of a result of thecomparison includes a notice that the telephone caller is authenticated.12. The device of claim 11, wherein the information indicative of aresult of the comparison includes additional household information. 13.The device of claim 8, wherein the information indicative of a result ofthe comparison indicates that the telephone caller is not authenticatedwhen a degree of matching between each of the first voice patterns andthe second voice pattern is below a specified threshold.
 14. The deviceof claim 8, wherein the information indicative of a result of thecomparison indicates that the comparison was inconclusive.
 15. Anon-transitory computer readable storage device including computerexecutable instructions for authenticating a telephone caller allegingto be associated with a household, the instructions, when executed by acomputer, causing the computer to perform operations comprising:monitoring a plurality of telephone calls associated with customerpremises equipment of a household for a predetermined duration; for eachof the plurality of telephone calls: responsive to determining that avoice pattern of a call participant matches a previously recordedpattern, determining whether a number of occurrences of the previouslyrecorded pattern exceeds a sufficiency threshold; and responsive todetermining the number of occurrences exceeds the sufficiency threshold,associating the voice pattern with the household; receiving, from anauthentication requestor, a request to authenticate a telephone caller,the request including: a first voice pattern of the telephone caller;and household information indicative of the household; retrieving, basedon at least some of the household information, a second voice patternassociated with a household member; comparing the first voice pattern tothe second voice pattern; transmitting information indicative of aresult of the comparing; and disassociating voice patterns associatedwith the household upon the occurrence of a change of household.
 16. Thecomputer readable storage device of claim 15 wherein the informationindicative of the household includes at least one of a physical addressfor the household and a telephone number for the household.
 17. Thecomputer readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the informationindicative of the result includes a notice that the telephone caller isauthenticated.
 18. The computer readable storage device of claim 17,wherein the information indicative of the result includes additionalhousehold information.
 19. The computer readable storage device of claim15, wherein the information indicative of the result a notice that thetelephone caller is not authenticated.
 20. The computer readable storagedevice of claim 15, wherein the information indicative of the resultincludes a notice that the comparison was inconclusive.